LulzSec UK census hack is only a drop in the ocean

Remember those reassurances from the UK government that the mandatory census will be treated with the utmost security? LulzSec says it has compromised all of the data and will be making it public. This proves several things. First, LulzSec are smart. Second, the United Kingdom has no idea about security - as we've been shouting from the rooftops since we first started publishing on TechEye.

It will be red faces all around for the government which decided to enforce the archaic obligatory census - punishable by hefty fines if you choose not to hand over your personal information to a shadowy anonymous data centre. We doubt your data will be secure if you filled out the form on paper: data entry workers have been working hard to digitise all your content.

We point you to quotes from earlier this year and reassurance from the National Statistics. There is "a lot of misinformation in the media." "No one gets access to the records."

However, our security professor told us at the time: "The government has proven time and time again that it can't be trusted with a laptop, let alone the details of millions of people.

"There's no doubt we'll be hearing soon that our details have been hacked."

Although LulzSec will claim it's doing it for the lulz, we should, perhaps, applaud the anonymous collective for showing up the shocking defences our government leans on. It will seem like one of the largest data leaks and quite close to home for us here in Britain, but actually this is just a drop in the ocean.

There is a slim chance the British population will be unknowingly farming gold in some Chinese World of Warcraft clone. And it is disturbing that the entire country will have every detailed census entry available against their will - although most of the country is quite happy to hand that data to Zuckerberg for free anyway.

But compared to the potential for cyber terrorism this is nothing. An expert with high levels of access to government spoke on condition of anonymity to TechEye - and has told us that the only thing that will make us stand up and take note will be a truly catastrophic disaster. We are not talking data theft. We are talking significant, weighted attacks on the country's infrastructure. Hospitals. Power grids. Airports. Data leaks are just the beginning.

This is not sensationalism. This is real. The entire country needs to wake up from its nap - Sony didn't teach us squat, neither will this, if true, but it should.

Yesterday's Evening Standard ran an opinion piece that suggested we learn from LulzSec as consultants - and it's not a bad idea, except for the fact they're in it for the lulz.

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They have a right to protect data, and its based upon this security of data that millions filled in their census forms.

If UK citizens are supposed to follow the law and fill in their census (giving a bunch of strangers detailed & free information), the UK government is supposed to follow the law and keep that data secure.

I'm not surprised in the slightest -

I think we've absolutely had it with these CCTV obsessed charlatans running our country through lies and fear.

James P - 21 Jun 12:47

Everyone should remember that the UK Government contracted a private military and defence company to run the census and collect the data.

There's a high chance that the data was taken from this company - Lockheed Martin - rather than directly from UK-G servers.

Luke - 21 Jun 12:50

Wasnt Lockheed Martin incharge of collating and securing all the data?